The creation of such a system will make it possible for the EurAsEC member states to increase their transactions at the interbank exchange, speeding up settlements and reducing costs, Rapota pointed out. According to him, the Euro-Asian Economic Community is now shifting its focus from general to more specific tasks, such as the development and implementation of joint investment projects, the provision of logistical and regulatory support for targeted programs, and the creation of an international monetary organization to administer payments between member states. A lot of importance is also given to the creation of a financial market, which is to be seen as a stage-by-stage process, with the ultimate goal being to bring the Eurasian economies together into a single monetary system and to introduce a common currency, the EurAsEC chief said.
Valery Serov, chair of the CIS economic integration committee in the Russian Chamber of Industry and Commerce, noted that despite recent growth in turnover between EurAsEC member countries (last year it reached $54 billion), mutual trade was still hurdled by the lack of a harmonized payments system. If the EurAsEC nations manage to adopt a single currency, this will be a good example for other CIS countries to follow, he said.
The participants in today's panel discussion considered ways to create conditions for broader use of national currencies in intra-EurAsEC trade and for the construction on their basis of a common payments systems, as well as options for the integration of monetary systems and challenges posed by this task.
